Baby Sitters Club 1. Chapter 1

"Come on Karen I want to see who my kindergarten teacher is!" shouted my brother Andrew to me and I could not help but mope around a little bit. Second grade had ended and I feel really sad. I just knew I was going to miss Ms. Colman and our class pet Hootie the most.

Hi I am Karen Brewer and I am 8 years old. This year I am starting the third grade at Stoneybrook Academy. I have one more week until I start the third grade. Right now mommy, Andrew, and I are visiting the school. Andrew is starting kindergarten and will start to go to school with me.

According to mommy I will get a chance to meet my teacher and see who the kids in my class will be. Mommy also has to pay for our textbooks for us to use. She has to enroll Andrew into the school so he can go.

I am going to show Andrew around so he knows where the playground and the cafeteria is. Right now I wish my friends Hannie Papadakis and Nancy Dawes was with me. Hannie is visiting her grandmother who is a whole state away. Nancy is with my step-sister who is babysitting her.

"Come on Karen I see the list!" Andrew yelled at me and I walked toward him. On the walls in front of the first grade rooms had a typed list. At the top had a name of a teacher then a list of the students.

I looked over Andrew's head at the list. He had Mr. Posner! I remember him back in the second grade we worked on Halloween costumes with his class. Sigh. I really need to stop thinking about the second grade but I could not.

"Look Karen I have Callie, Keith, Jodi, AND Alicia in my class!" Andrew said excited. He had four friends of his in his class already. Andrew kept talking as I looked around the hall.

A table had been set up with Mommy talking about books with Mr. Metz. Mr. Metz is a secretary that works with the principal. Several kids from the sixth grade student council went around decorating the halls for the first day. Lucky ducks I would have been happy to be decorating.

Down the hall in front of the papers about the third grade I saw Pamela Harding looking at the paper. My stomach flip flopped at the idea of being in the same class as Pamela again. She looked at me for a minute and then turned back to her parents and sister. Her sister looked like Pamela but she looked like an older version of Pamela. Maybe around Charlie or Sam's age at the big house (I will explain them later).

Nervous I walked down holding Andrew's hand since I promised mommy he wouldn't get lost. I saw the names of my former first grade classmates in Mr. Berger and Ms. Colman's second grade classes. Not looking I saw the list of the third grade classes.

There are two classes in each grade at school. The third grade teachers are Mr. Tang and Mrs. Oliver. I had heard many things about these teachers.

Mr. Tang is very nice and helps out around the school. He was just standing in the office talking to Mrs. Titus (she's our principal) a few minutes ago. If I had him I would be volunteering a lot. I would also have not much homework since I heard the work is very easy.

Mrs. Oliver can be very strict from what I hear. Sometimes she can be fun but I did not want her to be my teacher. I want Mr. Tang because everybody tells me how nice and fun he is as a teacher.

"Karen do you want to see who your teacher is?" asked Andrew as I stared at the kids in Ms. Colman's class list. If I had not skipped a grade I would be in Ms. Colman's class this year.

I nod before heading over to look at the list. Pamela and her family had left and nobody is in front of the list. I told Andrew to follow me and help me find my name.

The first paper I looked at was Mr. Tang's class. I really wanted to have him the most. At the top of the sheet his name is big along with the class in smaller letters underneath.

**Mr. Tang – Third Grade**

Jackson Bahadurian

Tracey Bannon

Teresa Barkan

Oliver Chang

Nancy Dawes

Deborah Dvorak

Molly Foley

Robert Gianelli

Janet Gilbert

Edwin Grant

Robert Ingram

Ian Johnson

Christopher Lamar

Leslie Morris

Hank Reubens

Adelaide Sidney

Richard Torres

Mary Washburn

Boo and bullfrogs! If I was in Mr. Tang's class my name would be between Terrie Barken and Oliver Chang's name. My class had to be Mrs. Oliver since her class is the only other third grade teacher. I look at the list looking to see if Nancy and Hannie were in this class.

Nancy is in the same class with Bobby Gianelli (he's sometimes a bully but he is okay now). Lucky ducks they are neighbors and classmates. Yuck but they had Leslie Morris in their class (she can be mean).

"Karen I found your name!" Andrew said tugging at my shirt. I looked at the paper wanting to see Hannie in my class but she was not there. What happened to Hannie? She wasn't moving at all unless she wasn't telling me anything.

**Mrs. Oliver**

Victoria Anders

Tamara Barkan

Nina Bluesky

Karen Brewer

Michael Davidson

Edwin Farley

Sara Ford

Audrey Green

Pamela Harding

Omar Harris

Carter Lewis

Christina Olsen

Colleen Owen

Michelle Rivers

Natalie Springer

Amelia Waters

Liddie Yuan

I did not know what to think about my new classmates. I remember Edwin Farley I beat him for class representative in the second grade. Natalie Springer Sara is nice and was also in my class.

Then I gulped at Pamela's name. I am going to be class with Pamela this year again? I took a deep breath and the next couple names I knew. Omar and Tammy were in my class last year too. Maybe this wasn't going to be too bad if I had a nicer teacher.


	2. Being a Two-Two

At least if school was going to be bad I was at least going to have a nice time at home. I mentioned that Nancy is being babysat by my step sister Kristy. You see I have two families and I call myself Karen two-two. Long ago when I was four (that was four years ago) my parents had gotten a divorce.

They used to argue a lot so they decided that they did not love each other. Both mommy and daddy loved us very much so we divided our time between both of my parents. Each month I spend time with mommy. When I was six she married a man named Seth. Seth is a nice man that is also a carpenter as well. I call the time I spend with mommy at the little house sine it is a small house.

At that house it is just me, Andrew, mommy, and Seth. We have pets too! There's Midgie our pet dog and Rocky our pet cat. Then Andrew has a hermit crab named Bob. I have a pet rat named Emily Michelle after my adopted sister.

Speaking of Emily Michelle I have to tell you about the big house family! Here is where my family gets complicated. After mommy and daddy divorced, daddy remarried a woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth was married before and she has four kids. So her kids became my step siblings.

There is Charlie and Sam who are so old, Sam is in high school and Charlie is in college. Kristy is fourteen and the best big sister ever! Then there is David Michael who is the same age I am. He can be a pest sometimes but sometimes he's okay. Finally there is Emily Michelle, daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from a place called Vietnam. When there became too many people at the big house Nannie moved in (she's Elizabeth's mother) to help take care of us.

We have pets there too. We have fish named Crystal Light the Second and Goldfishie that are Andrew and I's. Pumpkin the cat and Shannon our Bernese Mountain dog.

So I have two families one very big one and one small one. I have two set of everything at each house so I wouldn't forget anything. I even ripped my blanket tickly in half and keep half at each house. My friends are even at each house. Hannie lives across the street from the big house and Nancy lives next door to the little house.

Now I have to worry about what the third grade was going to be like!

**This is actually set up like a chapter two in the regular books. So I hope that I kept it like Karen would say it!**


	3. Where's Hannie?

**Where's Hannie?**

As soon as I got home I decided to call Hannie at her house. I want to know why her name is not on either of the third grade lists. I tried to think about when I last saw her. Then I remembered that she really wanted to tell me something but I told her that we were playing lovely ladies before I could listen. Drat. Now I really wanted to know what she was going to tell me. Maybe it was something about school starting!

"Hello?" said the voice on the other line. I recognized the voice as Linny (Hannie's older brother). I really wished I was living at the Big House this month.

"Hi Linny, this is Karen may I talk to Hannie?" I said as grown up as I can. Linny dropped the phone to go get Hannie from wherever she was. I waited for about five minutes before Hannie had come to the phone.

"Hi Karen!" she said brightly but I wanted answers. So instead of asking how she was I just outright asked her what is going on. There had to be a reason why she was not on the third grade list.

"I looked at the third grade list earlier today but I did not see your name," I said and Hannie grew quiet. Something big must have happened. "Hannie are you moving or something?"

"No I am not Karen," she said evenly, I could tell she was trying not to cry. "Daddy got a promotion at work and well… Mommy and daddy wanted to have us go to Stoneybrook Day School for a year."

Stoneybrook Day School?! Stoneybrook Day School is a private school that most kids in the Big House Neighborhood go to. It's a private school and the students wear a uniform and everything! My old friend Amanda Delaney used to go the Stoneybrook Day until she moved away.

So now Hannie and her brother will be going to Stoneybrook Day for the entire year? I am trying not to cry at the idea of not going to school with one of my best friends. First Nancy was in another class all together and now Hannie is gone.

"Thanks for telling me," I said before hanging up. Frowning I thought of what the third grade was going to be like. Will I be friends with Pamela this year? Would Nancy make other friends in her class? No, the three musketeers will always stick together, no matter what.

I could not help it though before I knew it I started to cry. I hugged tickly until it started to feel better. I knew what I had to do next. Go next door and tell Nancy what I know. Andrew poked his head into the room.

"Karen mommy said dinner is almost ready," said Andrew. "I'm going to tell mommy and Seth that I have all my friends in my class."

I could not help it, he was making me mad about not having my friends in my class.

"Be quiet Andrew, nobody wants to hear you talk about your friends," I said. Gulity about talking back I almost apologized but I was mad at him. Andrew stuck his tongue out at me and I ran over to Nancy's house to talk to her.


End file.

Baby Sitters Club